More Changes to SAM: GSA Updates SAM Log-in Process

Aug 2, 2018

By Maureen Jamieson,

Many companies were caught by surprise when they attempted to log into the System for Award Management (SAM) on or after June 11, 2018, and read the alert: Entities registering in SAM must submit a notarized letter appointing their authorized Entity Administrator. Some companies discovered that they were no longer active in SAM due to the backlog of notarized letters awaiting approval.

Effective June 29, 2018, SAM has a new log-in process. You must have a login.gov account to sign into SAM.gov. If you don’t have a login.gov account, you need to create one. Your old SAM.gov username and password will no longer work. For existing SAM users, you should use your existing SAM.gov email address. For new users, you will be able to create a new SAM profile once you complete the login.gov authentication.

One positive change is that all non-Federal entities who create or update their registration in SAM.gov will no longer need to have an approved Entity Administrator notarized letter on file before their registration is activated. However, all non-Federal entities still must mail the ORIGINAL, SIGNED copy of the notarized letter to the Federal Service Desk. All accounts must submit a notarized letter within 30 days or your account may no longer be active.

Here’s one issue you may encounter – If you use any other email address to create your account at login.gov other than the one associated with your SAM.gov account, your SAM.gov roles will need to be reassigned. This could cause delays in updating your existing registrations.

Why all the account changes? GSA’s SAM is continuing to support an active investigation by the GSA Office of Inspector General (OIG) into alleged, third-party fraudulent activity in SAM. GSA has taken these account changes to address this alleged fraudulent activity. In order to increase security and deter fraud, login.gov uses multi-factor authentication and stronger passwords for SAM.gov users.

For further information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions under the Help tab on SAM’s website.

Maureen Jamieson Executive Director of Consulting
Maureen Jamieson is the Executive Director of Consulting at Centre Law & Consulting, where she manages the GSA and VA Schedule contracting group. Maureen has more than twenty-five years of experience managing federal contracts. She is highly experienced in solving client pricing problems and implementing effective pricing strategies for placing products and services on GSA Schedule contracts.

I had to update my SAM’s registration at the end of June. It was the same process as before except at the completion of my SAM’s update I was informed that I had 30 days to print out the authorizing form, fill it with my appointed authorized Entity Administrator’s name. I then had to have that form with my signature notarized and mail it to the address provided in the instructions. It was quite simple.